[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 120 (Thursday, September 12, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           LNG EXPORT CAUCUS

  (Mr. FARENTHOLD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FARENTHOLD. Madam Speaker, America has a lot of clean-burning 
natural gas.
  The Eagle Ford Shale, in the district I represent, has created 
400,000 jobs and roughly $2.6 billion in salaries and benefits in the 
13-county area. Similar booms are happening in other parts of the 
country like North Dakota and Pennsylvania.
  Our domestic energy creates widespread economic prosperity and will 
continue if we don't ruin it with overregulation and red tape.
  Exporting some of America's huge supply of natural gas will create 
tens of thousands more jobs, narrow our trade deficit by billions, and 
help both our allies in need like Japan and the environment. When you 
factor in transportation costs, gas here at home will always be 
cheaper.
  The DOE recently conditionally approved additional LNG export 
licenses, but there's still a lot of red tape to wade through before 
these properties open. I worry these contingent licenses artificially 
overstate the potential for future LNG exports, and the lengths of time 
these approvals take risks our competitive and economic advantage over 
Middle Eastern countries.
  I, along with three of my colleagues, Jim Costa, Joe Barton, and 
Filemon Vela, created the LNG Export Caucus to help the development and 
timely export of LNG and encourage a rational regulatory environment 
that ensures the production and export of LNG, creating jobs, helping 
the economy, and cleaning the environment.

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